When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.
Literature and Philosophy
- Seneca and the Stoics (1.8, 75.10)
- Pythagoras (1.11, 98.8)
- Socrates (10.4)
- Edmund Burke (24.13)
- Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (35.9)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (42.5)
- Julius Caesar (6.5)
- Samuel Johnson (69.6, 104.2)
- Locke (73.40)
- Kant (73.40)
- Plato (75.10, 78.15, 85.11)
- Spinoza (75.10)
- William Shakespeare (79.4)
- Dante (85.11)
- William Cowper (96.12)
- Pascal (96.12)
- Rousseau (96.12)
- Pliny (105.5)
Biblical References
- Ishmael (1.1 and throughout the novel)
- Gabriel (1.9, 71)
- Gomorroh (2.5)
- Paul and Euroclydon (2.9)
- Lazarus (2.9-11)
- Dives (2.9, 2.11)
- Jonah (3.5, 9, 32.13, 75.4, 82.7, 83, )
- Canaan (6.5)
- Adam (7.5, 41.19, 105.4, 108.24)
- Noah (14.5, 105.15)
- Ahab (16.19 and throughout the novel)
- Matthew 6:19 (16.57)
- Elijah (19, 21)
- Job (24.13, 32.10, 41.25, Epilogue)
- Belshazzar (34.4)
- the tower of Babel (35.3)
- Moses (45.9)
- Judith (70.4)
- Abraham (70.7, 111.3)
- Paul (70.11)
- Ecclesiastes (96.12)
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (98.1)
- Methuselah (104.7)
- Shem (104.7)
- Solomon (104.7)
- the potter’s field (111.2)
- Maccabees (133.29)
- Rachel (128, Epilogue)
Greco-Roman Mythology References
- Jove/Jupiter (1.6, 7.7, 42.3, 79.2, 85.11, 133.17)
- Poseidon (1.6)
- Narcissus (1.6)
- the Fates (1.11)
- the Labyrinth (4.1, 85.3)
- Perseus (28.3, 82.3)
- the Sphynx (70.7)
- Hercules (82.6, 86.5)
- Saturn (104.7)
- Prometheus (108.6)
- Pan (111.3)
- Jove/Jupiter and Europa (133.17)
- Ixion (Epilogue)